With the Easter weekend fast approaching, I have another recipe for you today, that's perfect for that Easter brunch with the family (or whatever lockdown rules state for the weekend where you are). It's easy to make, ready in no time and doesn't make a mess of your kitchen like regular pancakes tend to do. Read on to find out how to make these. This recipe makes about 15 pancakes.

Ingredients:

Preheat your oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with greeseproof paper.

Sieve the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate into a bowl and mix together well.

In a big mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and the butter until creamy. Now add in the vanilla paste and the egg and whisk for another minute of so until evenly combined and you've got a light creamy texture.

Now add a bit of the flour mixture into the big mixing bowl, followed by a bit of the milk. Combine and repeat until everything's coming together in a dark, chocolatey batter.

Using a tablespoon, put the mixture on the lined baking tray. One spoonful makes one pancake. Make sure you leave sufficent room between the pancakes as they will expand quite a bit.

Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 8 - 10 minutes and serve with fruit, maple syrup or jam. Basically any of the good stuff!

I told you it was quick and easy :) Will you be trying these this weekend? Let me know in the comments below! Have a lovely, long, relaxed weekend guys!

I've been back at the bread making last week and just had to share these breadsticks with you as they are sooo scrumptious! They turned out super fluffy and soft and the garlic "glaze" is to die for! They are the prefect side for soups (which I'm still craving in this rainy, stormy weather we've been having) or for a quick lunch break sandwich. They take some time to make as we're using fresh yeast for the dough but the recipe is easy, vegan and definitely worth your time.

Here's what you'll need:

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and add 650ml warm (not hot) water, add 80ml of the olive oil and salt and stir until the yeast has desolved completely.

In a big bowl mix both flours together, then create a little hollow in the middle. Pour your yeast mixture in there and knead working outwards until you've got all the flour and liquid combined to a ball of dough.

Cover your bowl and leave to rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place.

Meanwhile finely chop your garlic and rosemary (especially if you're using fresh rosemary) and combine with about 5 - 6 tbsp of olive oil. Put aside.

Once your dough has risen considerably, knead it once more on a floured surface and divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a breadstick shape, put it on a lined baking tray and then flaten the top with your hands. Brush on some of the garlic oil you made, then twist your breadsticks starting in the middle. Brush the surface with more of the oil before putting it in a preheated oven at 225°C. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they turn a nice golden colour.

What do you think? Will you try these? I'm definitely gonna be back making more next weekend. Not only do they taste great but they also made my whole house smell heavenly - definitely a bonus!

Leave me a comment and let me know how you get on with the recipe if you do decide to try it :)

So it's February and we're hopefully one step closer to the end of this lockdown! The days are really starting to get noticeably lighter and longer and really, I'm just ready for spring now. How are you holding up where you are? For this week's lockdown bake I decided to make donuts - also perfect if you wanna get some American style snacks ready in time for the Super Bowl. So here's how to make them.

You'll need:

Some extra sugar and cinnamon for the topping

Preheat your oven to 225°C.

Generously grease your donut tray to make removing them after baking that bit easier.

In a large bowl mix together you flour, sugar, baking powder and spices. Set aside.

Wash and grate your apples than squeeze out as much of the juice as you can. Makes a nice glass of freshly squeezed apple juice to enjoy while your donuts are baking in the oven :)

Then, in another bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, butter and grated apples.

After that, gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Make sure you carefully fold them in and not to overmix as that might make your donuts less fluffy!

With a spoon, add the (slightly runny) dough into the baking tray, then bake in the oven for about 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Leave them to cool for a little bit before removing them from the tray to avoid the risk of burning your fingers (I know what I'm talking about here..)

Put the still warm donuts on a wire rack and sprinkle some cinnamon-sugar on top! If you fancy proper icing, go for it, be creative :)

That's literally all there is to do! Easy and sooooo good!

Are you gonna give these a go? What's your favourite donut place? Leave me a comment and let me know. Happy baking! :)

So this week, I finally got around to making some honey cakes! I love this recipe because it's super quick and easy to make, always works out and satisfies that craving for cake without being too sweet (yes even though there's honey in them!)

If you fancy making them, get you muffin tray ready and grab these ingredients:

Before you start, make sure you thoroughly grease your muffin tray because you won't be using paper liners for your cakes.

Preheat your oven to 200°C.

In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, salt and lemon zest.

Add the room temperature butter to the dry ingredients and mix together using your hands or a fork. Mix until everything's combined but don't overdo it, you don't want a smooth dough it can look a bit "sandy" still.

In a different bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.

Pour the honey mixture over the dry ingredients and combine using your fork again. Again make sure, that everything is combined well but don't worry about making it too smooth.

Now you can add the batter to your muffin tray and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes.

Take your cakes out of the oven and drizzle some honey over the still warm cakes. It works best if you microwave the honey for about 10 seconds as that makes it really runny. You can also brush the honey onto the cakes. Plop them back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or until they're golden brown on the outside.

Let the cakes cool in the baking tray completely before removing. They will be crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside.

There you go - easy :)

These will keep for about a week, if you can stay away from them for that long that is! :) So they're the perfect weekend baking project to get some homemade sweetness ready for the week ahead.

Let me know if you make these! What are your favourite weekend bakes for someone with a sweet tooth?

Another year, another lockdown! I hope you had a great start to 2021 despite all that is going down at the moment - it really feels like 2020 - the extended version doesn't it? While I try to keep sane by going on regular walks and hikes ( I'm in loooove with all the snow we're having this season!) and reading lots of good books and bingeing through all of Netflix I still felt like missing out on the full lockdown experience because I hadn't made a single loaf of bread! And apparently that's what we all do now right?

I didn't want to go all out with the sourdough starters though, so I tried a few easy overnight bread recipes first. And this no-knead wonder stuck! The ingredients are cupboard stables that most of you will probably already have at home. You also need a dutch oven/ cast iron pot to make this. So, jump on the bread-band wagon with me with these simple steps.

Ingredients:

In a big mixing bowl, add all your dry ingredients as well as the cumin seeds and herbs if you fancy giving this a little bit of a mediterranean twist. Combine well using a fork.

Add the water to your bowl and keep mixing everything together with that fork. Try to get all the flour combined well. You'll be left with a sticky, not very smooth dough. Put on a lid or clean tea towel and leave to rise over night (15 - 18 hours).

When you're ready to bake your bread. Preheat the oven to 225°C and put your dutch oven in right away. We want to get the pot quite hot before adding the bread.

On a floured surface shape your dough into a loaf. The dough will have risen quite a lot over night and will shrink a lot when you form the loaf. So after making the loaf, leave it on the surface, sprinkle plenty of flour on top and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave to rise for another 20 minutes.

Get your dutch oven out and line the bottom of it with greeseproof paper. Put your loaf in and cut a cross or any form you like into the top of your loaf. This will allow the heat to escape from inside the bread and will therefore prevent the bottom of your bread to burst or crumble. Put the lid back on and bake at 225°C for 30 minutes. Take off the lid and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Leave your bread to cool completely before slicing it.

There you go - easy as that! The cumin seeds not only improve the taste of this bread but also add some extra healthy goodness to it. Cumin seeds are antiseptic and antibacterial and help maintain digestive health.

Will you try this recipe? Let me know in the comments if you do. What other recipes have you tried during lockdown that you fell in love with?

P.S. of course I would forget the second proof on the day I made this to take photos. So this loaf looks a bit.. umm.. flat? Don't forget the second proof ;)

Happy December guys! I can't believe it's the last month of the year already! Christmas is mere days away and 2021 is fast approaching. Let's hope we can go back to some sort of normality next year and resume our travels and other plans. But for this month, let's make the most of a Christmas period that is quieter and more cosy than ever. And one thing that you absolutely shouldn't miss out on this Christmas is homemade cookies! I tried these marzipan and nutella filled stars for the first time this year and I loooove them! Here's what you'll need to make them yourselves:

Add the flour, cornstarch, sugar, a few drops of vanilla extract as well as the egg and butter in a big mixing bowl and knead until you've got a ball of dough. Chill you dough in the fridge for at least an hour.

After an hour, roll out the dough and, using a star shaped cookie cutter (obviously you can chose any shape you want :) ) cut out your biscuits. 

Bake  the biscuits on a baking tray lined with parchment paper for about 12 minutes at 180°C.

Leave them to cool and meanwhile mix your marzipan with the icing sugar then thinly roll out the mixture and cut out your marzipan stars. Make sure you cut out half the amount of biscuit stars you made.

Once your biscuits have cooled, take two of them and spread each one with nutella, then put a marzipan star on one star and cover with the nutella side of the second star. Repeat until all your biscuits have been made into little sandwiches, then cover with melted chocolate and walnuts.

And there you have it. Get yourself a steaming mug of mulled wine to go with these and maybe even enjoy a cheesy Christmas movie :)

Let me know if you try these at home :)

Lots of Love
Jess xx